Riverside—At 6-4, the UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team is off to its best start since the 2008-09 season, but up next is the Highlanders' toughest test of the current campaign as they travel to 17th-ranked San Diego State Monday evening for an 8 pm PT tip at Viejas Arena.
UCR has won four of its last five games including a 78-67 decision Saturday over Houston Baptist (
box score/
recap). Taylor Johns scored a season-high 28 points and grabbed a career-high 17 rebounds in the win, and was named Big West Player of the Week by College Sports Madness for his efforts.
The Highlanders rank third in the conference in scoring (71.7), field goal percentage (.454), three-point field goal percentage (.383) and free throw percentage (.728). Should they maintain those percentages throughout the course of the year, they would be the top marks in the Division I history of the program.
San Diego State is 8-3 on the season following a 70-57 victory over Ball State on Saturday. They also have a 53-49 win over then 25th ranked Utah this season, and nearly beat No. 3 Arizona before falling 61-59 in the Championship Game of the EA Sports Maui Invitational.
The Aztecs are doing it with defense this year holding opponents to 56.6 points per game, 37.4 percent shooting from the field and 30.3 percent from three-point range. Winston Shepard is SDSU's leading scorer at 11.3 points per game while four other Aztecs are averaging between 7.6 and 9.2 points.
San Diego State has won the previous nine meetings between the clubs (
view results) including a 77-41 victory on November 8 of last year (
box score/
recap).
